Federal and local agencies say they have rescued more than 13,000 people in the Houston area as well as in surrounding cities and counties in Southeast Texas since Tropical Storm Harvey inundated the area with torrential rain. At least 18 deaths are confirmed. (Aug. 30)
AP

I was grateful to my soul, just as thousands of Houston’s evacuees felt when their rescuers and helpers arrived.

I’ve been a resident of Dickinson, Texas, for 42 years. I was within 30 votes of being mayor of the town 30 miles southeast of Houston on the main highway to Galveston a couple decades ago.

I got to know Dickinson well when I did a door-to-door campaign in all the neighborhoods of the city — African-American, white, Hispanic, rich, poor, middle-class. I got to talk to people in person throughout the city, and hear what they wanted from government. In Dickinson, it was simple stuff: police, better drainage, good roads. I got to know the citizens too — their goodness, their openness and their willingness to give an unknown hopeful person like me a chance.

I lost the election, but I learned a greater truth: Thomas Jefferson was right. The American people are fundamentally good, and the citizens are wiser than they are given credit for. Wisdom and goodness come from the people, he believed, not the government. Perhaps our politicians and news media — focused almost exclusively on what divides us — should be mindful of the lessons of Dickinson, an object lesson in patriotism.

When Dickinson became the epicenter for Harvey’s vicious flooding on the national news, it was clear that the robust government response on all levels — federal, state, county, city — wasn’t enough. They needed the help of ordinary folks.

When the call went out for people to help in this terrible disaster, they immediately did, in whatever way they could: people helping neighbors and strangers alike, giving sanctuary to the evacuees, donating clothes, food, water, money, time, effort. Everyone just pitched in. Those that had boats like the Cajun Navy, fishermen and boaters of all kinds, appeared in staging areas and hauled people out of flooded neighborhoods to safety at the direction of the Coast Guard and local first responders.

I saw a young African-American man interviewed on why he was risking life and limb to help out. His sentiment was the same as I heard from many others: We’re Americans. This is what Americans do. This is what Americans are.

It didn’t matter if the people they were rescuing were African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, legals, illegals, Christians, Muslims, Jews, old, young, healthy, unhealthy, rich, poor, fat, thin. All that stuff was completely irrelevant. What was essential is that we had to get through this overwhelming disaster together. Along with the Salvation Army and the Red Cross, platoons of ordinary individuals, businesses and churches spontaneously pitched in with amazing alacrity and generosity, in any way they could.

For instance, Houston’s most colorful local business personality, Gallery Furniture’s Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale threw open his enormous warehouse stores to house and feed thousands of evacuees, and offered up his fleet of trucks to conduct rescues. The Texas grocery chain H-E-B likewise delivered truckloads of food and water to the 10,000 evacuees at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center, and around the region.

On a personal level, our experience was similar. My husband and I are officially senior citizens, and not so able bodied. Happily, our house is higher than most in Dickinson, so we only got a few inches of water. But even we needed help. One generous neighbor, a former Coast Guard officer, fixed our old generator before the storm, in case the electricity went out. After the flooding, the Galveston County DA Jack Roady and his family — old friends — offered us their help, knowing we couldn’t adequately deal with the aftermath ourselves. The Roady family came loaded with strong kids and ShopVacs, and got our life in order within a few hours. They themselves had flooded cars they had to tend to, but they were tending the needs of several elderly friends in the area first.

Also, I heard from more than 100 friends and relatives offering us their homes, their help, their prayers and everything they had. The outpouring in my small corner of life was spontaneous, immediate and overwhelming. I was grateful to my soul, just as thousands of Houston’s evacuees felt when their rescuers and helpers arrived.

My experience was just a tiny microcosm of what was happening on an enormous scale throughout Houston and Texas. The whole traumatic week of Hurricane Harvey was not only a tale of horrific destruction but also a greater story of how heroic Americans innately are, and how divisions between us don’t really matter. Texans are especially gifted in this sort of heroism since we have our full share of natural disasters, as do heroes from Louisiana, Mississippi and other states who arrived almost instantly in Houston to help. We are bound together by a social, moral and spiritual cohesion that is impressive to anyone who witnesses it — and is usually invisible in the news media.

In fact, the one bright side of the disaster is that everyone saw genuine heroism and goodness on television, for a full week. Here’s how we act, here’s what we do.

The corollary to that is: Think of how great this nation would be if we tackled every challenge as we tackled Harvey — with generosity, heroism, common sense, humanity, bravery, compassion and an utter disregard for the artificial differences we’re told divide us.

The simple and undeniable truth is that we’re all in this together. Politicians and the news media alike ought to pause their relentless sniping, stop focusing on unimportant gossip and other irrelevancies — and just act like Americans.

Our ordinary citizens just gave them a week-long object lesson in how to do that, for all to see: Roll up your sleeves. Do some good. Help.